What is a neo-con? The full term is neo-conservative and it means someone who calls themselves a conservative or Republican, but has strayed far from what many consider the “true” conservative or Republican values.

Specifically,

The neo-con is war-happy, looking for excuses to go to war, rather than thinking harder to find ways to avoid war when the alternative is not worse. They pretend to care for the troops, while not trying hard enough to keep them from harm’s way. Rarely are these neo-cons nor their children in the danger of war frontlines themselves.

The neo-con is soft on socialism and big government, meaning they pretend to oppose higher taxes, bail-outs and excessive regulation, but compromise in the end, ever yielding more freedoms to the demanding liberal front.

The neo-con is overly concerned with the war on drugs, at the expense of personal freedoms, basic legal rights and the taxpayer (prison and enforcement support).

The neo-con wants to legally impose his/her moral values on everyone, at the expense of personal freedoms and basic rights. Has the neo-con become much better than the liberals, seeking just another way to control everyone?

The neo-con fuels conflict with religion, which does nothing to calm relations between nations with different dominant religions. Religion can be a very good thing, but not when it’s used as an excuse for more war.

In the end, who is the real conservative depends on who you ask. Many of us libertarian types call ourselves the “real conservatives”, and the others the “neo-cons” and “RINOs”, whereas the neo-cons may call themselves the real conservatives and call us RINOs. The neo-con label, however is more specific and will never apply to a libertarian, and I prefer to use these more specific terms, “neo-con” and “libertarian”, to avoid misunderstanding and better communication.